Philip Hawley, Jr., Stigma

Stigma

Philip Hawley, Jr.

Harper, Mar 2007, $7.99

ISBN: 0060887443

At the University Children's Hospital in California, a Guatemalan Mayan child dies in the emergency room in spite of pediatric Dr. Luke McKenna's efforts to save the boy. Luke is confused as the child's illness is unknown to him. However, he is stunned when Guatemalan officials abetted by hospital administrators take the young corpse away before he can perform the required postmortem exam.

However, the former SEAL is not one to ignore a mystery so he continues to ask questions, which leads to killers needing to silence him. They do that by cleverly framing him for the murders of a former girlfriend and a football player, which energizes Luke further to exonerate himself while learning the entire truth. On the lam, he realizes he must go to Guatemala to find out what killed the child, not realizing the horror that awaits him if he can stay alive with thugs trying to kill him and elude the law as cops want him arrested for the two homicides.

This action-packed medical thriller grips the audience from the onset and never slows down until the final confrontation. The fast-paced storyline is fun to follow as the hero uses his military training to endure his ordeal although the strain on his mind is enormous as horrible memories from those days in uniform engulf and albeit endanger him. Though the climax seems weak, readers will want to run along side McKenna as he struggles to survive and uncover the truth.

Harriet Klausner